Should I trade in my Mac Pro for the new iMac?

The two Core i5s are faster (of course so is the i7)

CaoCao said:

The two Core i5s are faster (of course so is the i7)

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The low end Core i5 isn't faster since it's only dual core. Only the top end model that comes standard with the i5 with the option for an i7 has a quad core.

OP: The top end i7 would definitely be faster across the board. If you can afford one with an SSD though then it will feel worlds apart.

Given the usage described, I'm with Spanky Deluxe on this one; go for an i7 based iMac.

rangtang said:

Are we talking a significant speed improvement, or something that is barely noticeable by going with the i7? I won't be doing the solid state HD as that is a crazy expensive upgrade this generation.

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The improvement should be pretty significant. Your Mac Pro scores 5089 in GeekBench while i7 iMac scores 8237. that's over 60% increase let alone faster RAM

http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/

Hellhammer said:

The improvement should be pretty significant. Your Mac Pro scores 5089 in GeekBench while i7 iMac scores 8237. that's over 60% increase let alone faster RAM

http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/

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That is pretty significant, and that benchmark is for the old 2.8Ghz i7. So the new i7 iMac will be even higher, possibly almost doubling the benchmark. Definitely a significant improvement.

Spanky Deluxe said:

The low end Core i5 isn't faster since it's only dual core. Only the top end model that comes standard with the i5 with the option for an i7 has a quad core.

OP: The top end i7 would definitely be faster across the board. If you can afford one with an SSD though then it will feel worlds apart.

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On Pass Mark the Woodcrest gets 1,685=3,370
and the dual Core i5 gets 2,996, but in only dual threaded things the Core i5 wins and in monothread things is much faster (boosts to 3.86GHz) plus it has HD 5670 with 512MB
the i5 also has hyperthreading

Another vote for the high end iMac, it certainly will be much faster then the your MP.

alust2013 said:

That is pretty significant, and that benchmark is for the old 2.8Ghz i7. So the new i7 iMac will be even higher, possibly almost doubling the benchmark. Definitely a significant improvement.

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The new i7 has just 133MHz faster clock so it'll be ~5% faster. GeekBench is just synthetic benchmark so in real life the i7 might be even faster than in that benchmark. Some people have scored 10 000 in geekbench with i7 iMac so it'll be up to 100% faster or even faster than that

Go with i7 iMac

You also need to ask yourself whether or not you'll miss having internal expansion. iMacs aren't internally expandable outside of RAM.

I'd say go with an iMac if you don't think you have a need for upgradable graphics, multiple internal hard drives or the ability to add PCI-E expansion cards. If you don't need any of those things, a 27" iMac Core i7 is a better value than a modern base Mac Pro Quad.

OP, I just had another read through your first post and it sounds to me like you've never really used the upgradeability of your Mac Pro apart from adding a second hard drive and maybe a bit more RAM. As such I doubt you'd miss the expandability if you switch to an iMac (you can still upgrade the RAM in it though).

Mac Pro users who have added RAM on several occasions, filled up all of their drive sleds, upgraded the graphics card and added expansion PCIe cards are the ones who would get annoyed with the iMac. That doesn't seem to be you though.

I'd suggest you go for the top end iMac with the i7 and get Applecare while you're at it (advisable on any Mac but more so on the less upgradeable ones imo). Then get yourself an extra 2x2GB RAM kit from somewhere like Crucial. It will be faster in every way than your current Mac Pro. The hyperthreading in the i7 will only get used more in the future. In some of the tasks I do I get about 60% extra performance because of it.

Edit: Just saw your post. There's definitely no need for you to have a Mac Pro. The iMac comes with everything you'd need or want right now as standard. You can upgrade the RAM still and you can add external hard drives if you need them in the future (although it doesn't sound like you have high storage requirements at all).

rangtang said:

As posted on another forum: I can see possibly doing the 27 inch i7, stock 1 TB HD, with the stock 4 GB RAM (possibly upgrading the RAM elsewhere for cheaper I imagine?)

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Yeah, 2x2GB from 3rd party is around 100 bucks and 240 bucks gets you 2x4GB (total of 12GB). If you want internal storage, get the 2TB drive as that isn't easily upgradeable

rangtang said:

Oh great, I didn't even realize that it had 4 slots for RAM. I was stuck thinking that I had two slots (macbook on the brain).

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Yeah they always used to but no more. Within a year or two it'll probably be relatively cheap to upgrade it to 16GB of RAM if you end up needing it!

I'm seriously thinking of selling my 2008 Mac Pro to get a top of the line new iMac......don't think i'd cost me a whole lot more. The only reason I have a Mac Pro is to put a sweet video card in it to play Wow.

Hmm...

BConvery said:

I'm seriously thinking of selling my 2008 Mac Pro to get a top of the line new iMac......don't think i'd cost me a whole lot more. The only reason I have a Mac Pro is to put a sweet video card in it to play Wow.

Hmm...

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The HD 5750 with 1GB is plenty good to play WoW, is 80-120 FPS good enough for you?

CaoCao said:

The HD 5750 with 1GB is plenty good to play WoW, is 80-120 FPS good enough for you?

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It is now, but what about 3 years from now? I need to delay obsolescence as long as possible...

BConvery said:

It is now, but what about 3 years from now? I need to delay obsolescence as long as possible...

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Then don't sell it. 2008 Mac Pro is faster than any iMac (assuming you have 8-core) so you wouldn't gain anything by switching, it would be a downgrade. Invest on new GPU when they come if you're interested on better gaming performance on your Mac Pro